By Kingston Magare 25.8.2026
All Progressive Congress candidate Bola Tinubu and his African Democratic Congress counterpart Atiku Abubakar are most likely to skip the national debate ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Tinubu did not participate in the 2023 debate and from all indications in 2027, he will also be to watching other presidential candidates sweat it out on television.
Atiku said in a statement on Tuesday that he would only show up if and when Tinubu will signed on to debate.
He argued that political debates worldwide have always been between the ruling party and the opposition parties.
“The situation in Nigeria today in which presidential debates are organised among the opposition parties only is therefore untenable. This has become a strategy that the failed, incompetent, and corrupt All Progressives Congress’ government under Tinubu has been using to further instigate the opposition to attack each other while shielding itself from scrutiny by the Nigerian people,” said Atiku’s spokesperson Kenneth Okonkwo.
“He Atiku Abubakar, as the leader of the coalition of opposition parties and leaders, is left with no other choice than to make his appearance in any presidential debates conditional on the participation of President Bola Tinubu and the APC. There is no hiding place for APC in 2027.”
But the Nigeria Democratic Congress said Tuesday all presidential candidates must make themselves available to the Nigerian people for the debate.
“The presidential candidates of the APC and the ADC, President Bola Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, were conspicuously absent from the Peace Accord signing and the NBA event in Port Harcourt.
“Only the presidential candidate of our great party, the NDC, His Excellency Mr Peter Obi, has been the only major candidate in this election attending these important events.
“Nigerians do not need people who are too big to talk to them.
“Our candidate has been readily available, meeting and talking with Nigerians,” NFC director of new media and strategy communication Theo Abu Agada, posted on X social media.